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PETALING JAYA: Several former ministers and deputies have called on the government to increase mass testing in response to the increase in Covid-19 cases, many of which are asymptomatic.
This comes a day after Malaysia reported a record 3,027 new cases, breaking the previous high of 2,593 on Wednesday.
Former Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad and his former MP, Dr. Lee Boon Chye, and former Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Yeo Bee Yin and his former MP, Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis, said the government should address the call in the medical experts and embark on a massive testing exercise.
“Since many cases are asymptomatic (around 80%), mass testing becomes very important to allow early isolation and prevent further spread and ‘spread’ in the community,” they said in a statement.
All four said that with total testing capacity hovering around 80,000 PCR tests a day, the country has the capacity to carry out massive tests in specific areas.
If cost is an issue, they said, cheaper and faster RTK antigen tests could be an effective alternative.
“As we do more tests, the number of positive cases will temporarily increase. But this is not the time to hide our heads in the sand, we must face it head-on, find all the positive cases in the community and then isolate them, ”they said.
The group said the mass testing effort should begin with the inspection of high-risk locations, such as foreign worker neighborhoods, prisons and the communities surrounding those areas.
They said that if the government does not invest in massive testing now, the human and economic cost resulting from this failure would far outweigh the costs of testing.
They also called for a review of the contact tracing system, citing that MySejahtera had only directly detected about 4% of all reported cases.
“It shows that the government has not fully (or not at all) taken advantage of big data analytics by using data collected through MySejahtera and combining it with other data available in government systems, as well as public data that can be mined, such as posts with social media tag metadata, to develop a more sophisticated way to track positive cases.
“We must continue to innovate and not be complacent on our early successes and laurels,” they said.
His statement added that the current situation will require a “whole of government” and “whole of society” approach, combined with the broader development of best public health and scientific intervention practices.
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